Road: Timothy wins North East Regional Champs

Thomas Timothy secured victory in the North East Regional Road Race Championships in Northumberland, after a strong team effort from his colleagues at Achieve CC-Skinnergate Racing.

The 22-year-old, who is from Catterick but currently living at university in Newcastle, led in a one-two for Achieve-Skinnergate Racing with Jack Rees taking second, while third spot went to Neil Wallbank (Sunderland Clarion).

Pre-race favourite Tom Bustard (Herbalife) – who had shown his strength with victory in the criterium on Friday evening - crashed out of Sunday’s title race, leaving it wide open.

A two-man break got away early in the race with Bustard’s team-mate Simon Baxter (Herbalife-Leisure Lakes) and Adam Martin (Metaltek-Knights of Old) heading up the road.

Achieve CC headed up the chase, and eventually pulled them back, teeing the race up for a bunch gallop.

By his own admission, Timothy doesn’t have a strong sprint, so with the finish looming he attacked, preferring to go early rather than face a sprint, and he held his lead to the line.

Behind him, team-mate Jack Rees – who has a stronger sprint – made sure of second spot, while not overhauling his team-mate, while Wallbank took third, another 2-3 seconds behind.

“When the early move went up the road we got the whole team on the front,” said Timothy afterwards. “I felt good and we were working well to chase them down. It was really a team effort.

“We’ve got new sponsors on board recently, including Arc Carbon Wheels, so we wanted to put on a decent ride for them.

“I know these roads because I’m studying at Newcastle. They’re fast and rolling and there’s plenty of places to attack.”

Meanwhile, in the junior race victory went to Sportscover rider James King, who took the win ahead of Scott Auld (Dirt Wheels) and Alex Hopper (Team Wallis).

British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.